1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for automatically cleaning the hand grip on a tubular member such as used in athletic equipment, hand tools or the like. More specifically, the invention relates to an apparatus that sequentially and continuously cleans the hand grips on a set of golf clubs.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
The basic concept of employing a set of revolving brushes in combination with a wash water stream and a rinse water stream to clean an object is generally known and commercially practiced in applications that vary broadly from such uses as automatic car washes to production lines that reuse glass containers. However, such concepts and washing techniques have found only limited applications when applied to the cleaning of the gripping surface on handles of such items as golf clubs. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,224,029 and 4,554,696 disclose devices that are intended to clean the hand grip on a single golf club, but neither of these devices are capable of simultaneously cleaning several golf clubs. As such, the devices are slow and not amenable to cleaning an entire set of golf clubs in a convenient time span consistent with the demand occurring at a golf club and during play. As such, prior to the present invention, there remains a need for an apparatus and method of automatically cleaning multiple golf club grips of an entire set of clubs on a short time span basis.